Joseph Smith Had the Plates, and He Had to Protect Them

After Joseph obtained the plates, the mobs reacted immediately. As Joseph brought the plates home from the Hill Cumorah, he was attacked. The efforts to take the plates increased over the next several weeks, and included forced searches of the Smith family home, ransacking their barn, and even threatening physical violence. The need to protect the plates caused Joseph and Emma to leave Palmyra and move to Harmony, where they lived on Emma’s family farm and had enough peace to move forward with the translation.

Moroni warned Joseph of persecution

In a prior post, I wrote about the attack on Joseph the night he brought the plates home from the HIll Cumorah.¹ Even before that first attack, Joseph was prepared, as Moroni had warned him of the need to protect the plates.

During Moroni’s first visit in September, 1823, Moroni told Joseph that “when I got those plates of which he had spoken . . . I should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed.”²

When Joseph obtained the plates, Moroni “delivered [the plates] to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.

“I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required at my hand.”³ Lucy Mack Smith (Joseph’s mother) wrote about several attempts that were made to take the plates from Joseph, and I would encourage you to read her book if you are interested in knowing more about some of these experiences.

Joseph’s efforts to protect the plates might have caused people to know he had them

If Joseph was warned to not show the plates to anyone, and if people didn’t believe Joseph’s claims, why were there so many efforts to take them from him?

It must be remembered that treasure hunting was a common practice at the time, and Joseph had gained a reputation as a treasure hunter.⁴ That, combined with Joseph’s own efforts to take steps to protect the plates, created rumors that he had in fact found treasure.

On the night Joseph obtained the plates, he hid them about three miles from his home: “Finding an old birch log much decayed, excepting the bark, which was in a measure sound, he took his pocket knife and cut the bark with some care, then turned it back and made a hole of sufficient size to receive the plates, and, laying them in the cavity thus formed, he replaced the bark; after which he laid across the log, in several places, some old stuff that happened to lay near, in order to conceal as much as possible the place in which they were deposited.”⁵ When he came home, he asked his mother if she “had a chest with a lock and key.”⁶ She did not, so they sent Joseph’s brother Carlos to obtain one from Hyrum, which he did.⁷

The effort to find a chest in which Joseph could keep the plates appears to have been one of the causes for word getting out about the existence of the plates. Lucy writes that Joseph asked her where he could get a chest made, and she told him “to go to a certain cabinet-maker, who had made some furniture for my oldest daughter, and tell him that we would pay him for making a chest as we did for the other work which he had done for us, namely, one-half in cash and the other in produce.”⁸

Joseph apparently asked “his neighbor Willard Chase, a local carpenter and joiner, twice in September to make a case for him before he retrieved the plates. Chase likely refused because he doubted that Joseph could repay him for the materials and labor. Chase remembered Joseph making plans to protect the plates, contemplating the problems that he would face once he had them and knowing that the angel had charged him to keep them hidden.”⁹ Lucy recalled that it was Willard Chase who orchestrated the attack on Joseph the night he obtained the plates, although she remembers him as being a Methodist leader.¹⁰

Willard Chase attempted to justify the efforts to take the plates from Joseph:

“Willard Chase, who knew Joseph personally and had worked with him on accasion, later claimed that the angel told Smith that he could not retrieve the plates until he brought his brother Alvin with him to the hill during one of his annual visits. After Alvin passed away, Chase claimed, the angel commanded Joseph to find another person to assist and that ‘Joseph believed that one Samuel T. Lawrence [a local resident and fellow money digger] was the man alluded to by the spirit.’ Chase asserted that Lawarence went with Smith to the hill before 1827 and advised Joseph not to ‘let these plates be seen for about two years, as it would make a great disturbance in the neighborhood.’ Chase explained that even though Joseph may have thought Lawrence was to help him retrieve the plates, Joseph instead took his wife, Emma, to the hill in 1827 to obtain them.”¹¹

Martin Harris recollects that the local “money-diggers claimed that they had as much right to the plates as Joseph had, as they were in company together. . . . They claimed that Joseph had been [a] traitor, and had appropriated to himself that which belonged to them.”¹² It seems that much of the efforts to take the plates from Joseph were by Joseph’s prior “money-digging” associates, who believed he had selfishly kept a prize that should have belonged to all of them.

“Ironically, while the detractors of Joseph Smith spent the remainder of his life claiming that he had never found any gold plates, had any visitations from angels, or received any visions, Joseph’s initial problems with his enemies in 1827 were precisely because they were certain that he had in fact obtained some golden treasure from the hill, and therefore they wanted to take it from him, forcibly if they had no other choice. Those who were most acquainted with Joseph in Palmyra did not doubt he had received the plates but instead took steps to obtain them for themselves or at the very least find the remnants of the buried treasure possibly still lying in the hill.”¹³

Joseph’s friends and family felt or lifted the plates

Joseph had been commanded to not show the plates to anyone, but he had friends and family who wanted to help. These individuals honored the requirement that nobody was allowed to view the plates, but they would on occasion, and often out of necessity, lift or feel them.

“One man revealed that he heard the covered plates rattle and ‘jink’ inside their box. Joseph’s sister Katherine . . . remembered that they were ‘heavy like gold,’ . . . and she ‘rippled her fingers up the edge of the plates and felt that they were separate metal plates and heard the tinkle of sound that they made.'”¹⁴ Although Katherine never saw the plates, she saw their shape through the covering, touched them, and lifted them. William, Joseph’s brother, wrote that he “hefted the plates as they lay on the table wrapped in an old frock or jacket in which Joseph had brought them home.”¹⁵ “In fact, most of Joseph’s closest friends and family testified to touching, hefting, or seeing the plates.”¹⁶

A significant question is whether Joseph in fact had metal plates. Joseph’s friends and family who touched and lifted the plates certainly could testify of their reality, even though they never saw them. The mobs believed Joseph had plates, otherwise why would they make such an effort to find and take them? There can be no doubt that Joseph had metal plates.

Joseph seeks the help of Martin Harris

While mobs tried to take the plates from Joseph, Joseph was trying to work out what he was supposed to do with the plates. He knew he needed help, and one person he asked for help was Martin Harris.

In a prior post, I wrote about Martin Harris and his relationship with the Smith family.¹⁷ Lucy describes him as a “confidential friend.”¹⁸ There is some evidence that Joseph “had apparently already seen Martin in the spectacles [the Urim and Thummim] and knew that God had chosen him to help bring forth the Book of Mormon.”¹⁹ And so, Joseph asked his mother to approach Martin “and inform him that [Joseph] had got the plates and that he desired to see Mr. Harris concerning the matter.”²⁰

Lucy agreed, but on the condition that she first speak with Martin’s wife, Lucy Harris. It is evident in Lucy’s book that she had prejudicial feelings against Lucy Harris. It is no wonder, as Lucy became antagonistic to Joseph, and it was apparently Lucy who caused Martin to lose the 116 manuscript pages (which I will discuss in a future post). It took some time for Joseph’s mother to convince Martin to come speak with Joseph, and when he did agree, he felt the need to conduct an investigation to determine for himself the reality of Joseph’s claims: “Martin spoke with members of the Smith household ‘separately, that I might get the truth of the matter.’ After being satisfied that their accounts harmonized, he lifted the box in which the plates were kept. He concluded that it contained some sort of metal, either lead or gold. ‘I knew that Joseph had not credit enough to buy so much lead.'”²¹ After his investigation, Martin prayed to learn the truth for himself:

“I left Mr. Smith’s about eleven o’clock and went home. I retired to my bedroom and prayed God to show me concerning these things, and I covenanted that if it was his work and he would show me so, I would put forth my best ability to bring it before the world. He then showed me that it was his work, and that it was designed to bring in the fullness of his gospel to the gentiles to fulfill his word, that the first shall be last and the last first. He showed this to me by the still small voice spoken in the soul. Then I was satisfied that it was the Lord’s work, and I was under a covenant to bring it forth.”²²

That prayer changed the course of Martin’s life. He sacrificed everything he had: his reputation, his wealth, even his family, as his conviction of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon was at odds with his wife’s disdain for the work. Martin believed he had made a covenant with God, and although it cost him everything, he lived the rest of his life to honor that covenant.

Joseph and Emma move to Harmony

Owing to the mounting efforts to forcefully take the plates, Joseph began looking for a way out of Palmyra. He contacted Emma’s brother, Alva, who came to Palmyra to help Joseph and Emma move. Martin was apprised of their imminent departure, and he gave Joseph and Alva some advice: “‘I advised him to take time enough to get ready, so that he might start a day or two in advance [of an expected Monday departure]: for he would be mobbed if it was known when he started,’ said Martin. He also advised Joseph and Alva to ‘cut each a good cudgel’ (a short, thick stick) to use as a protective weapon on the journey. This they did. Martin then helped the two men load a wagon in preparation for the journey ahead.”²³

“[F]earing for the safety of the plates, . . Joseph carefully concealed the plates for the several days’ journey to Harmony in the wagon. . . . Martin helped Joseph put the box containing the plates into a barrel, which was filled with beans and then was nailed shut. . . . Not long after they left Palmyra, a man claiming to have a search warrant stopped them to search their wagon for the plates. After a thorough search, in which he may have even sifted through the barrel of beans, he did not find the plates and likely returned to the village to report that Smith did not have the plates. Soon after the first search was finished, a second man approached the wagon and conducted a search for the plates, again to no avail.”²⁴

Joseph and Emma arrived in Harmony in late November or early December 1827.²⁵ Those two months after Joseph obtained the plates were filled with mobs trying to take the plates with threats of violence. But once he arrived in Harmony, he rarely had to actively hide the plates. Emma said, “[The plates] lay under our bed for a few months but I never felt the liberty to look at them. . . . the Plates often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth.”²⁶ During her last interview with her son, Joseph Smith III, Emma said that “she saw the plates in a sack, for they lay on a small table in their living room in their cabin on her father’s farm, and she would lift and move them when she swept and dusted the room and furniture. She even thumbed the leaves as one does the leaves of a book, and they rustled with a metallic sound.”²⁷

Why was there so much persecution?

In his later history, Joseph reflected on the persecution he faced throughout his life:

“It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was that an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor, should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it was, and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself.”²⁸

From the perspective of the world, Joseph Smith was nobody. So why did he attract so much attention? If he didn’t have gold plates, why were so many attempts made to discover and steal them? The evidence is overwhelming that he had metal plates. The three and eight witnesses saw them. Many friends and family touched or lifted them. Mobs tried to take them. It seems, in this instance, that there can be no dispute that he had something. So what were they, and what did he do with them?

The translation of the Book of Mormon is a significant event, not just for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but for those who believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God, its translation is one of the most significant events in human history. My next several posts will discuss varous details pertaining to the translation of the Book of Mormon.

References

1. “Joseph Smith Obtains the Plates,” https://discoverfaithinchrist.com/joseph-smith-obtains-the-plates/. ↩︎
2. Joseph Smith-History 1:34, 42. ↩︎
3. Joseph Smith-History 1:59-60. ↩︎
4. “Was Joseph Smtih a Treasure Hunter,” https://discoverfaithinchrist.com/was-joseph-smith-a-treasure-hunter/. ↩︎
5. Lucy Mack Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” Zion’s Camp Books, Kindle Edition, Chapter 22. ↩︎
6. Lucy Mack Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” Chapter 22. ↩︎
7. Lucy Mack Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” Chapter 22. ↩︎
8. Lucy Mack Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” Chapter 22. ↩︎
9. Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmatt, “From Darkness Unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon,” The Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 2015, 7, https://rsc.byu.edu/book/darkness-unto-light. ↩︎
10. Lucy Mack Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” Chapter 22, “My husband soon learned that ten or twelve men were clubbed together, with one Willard Chase, a Methodist class leader, at their head, and what was still more ridiculous, they had sent sixty or seventy miles for a certain conjurer to come and divine the place where the plates were secreted.” ↩︎
11. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 8. ↩︎
12. Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, “Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon,” 2018, BYU Studies, Provo, Utah, Kindle edition, 114. ↩︎
13. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 10. ↩︎
14. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 15. ↩︎
15. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 15. ↩︎
16. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 15. ↩︎
17. “Who Was Martin Harris?” https://discoverfaithinchrist.com/who-was-martin-harris/. ↩︎
18. Lucy Mack Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” Chapter 23. ↩︎
19. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 26. ↩︎
20. Lucy Mack Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” Chapter 23. ↩︎
21. Black, “Martin Harris,” 113. ↩︎
22. Black, “Martin Harris,” 113. ↩︎
23. Black, “Martin Harris,” 116. ↩︎
24. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 32. ↩︎
25. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 32. ↩︎
26. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 32. ↩︎
27. MacKay, “From Darkness Unto Light,” 32. ↩︎
28. Joseph Smith-History 1:23. ↩︎